1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inter-terminal connection control technique for videoconferencing and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Videoconferencing systems that perform two-way audiovisual communication using a network have been commercialized. Initiating a videoconference requires calling upon participating terminals to interconnect. Control for such interconnection is referred to as connection control.
Commercially available videoconferencing systems are implemented with a function for performing connection control in conformity with a recommendation such as H.323, and guarantee interconnectivity between different manufacturers or models. Connection control is normally carried out by a function module referred to as an MC (Multipoint Controller) which manages connection. An MC may be mounted on a connection control server or on a conference terminal.
In addition, IP phones are also widely used as a method of one-to-one audiovisual communication. Connection control for establishing a call with an IP phone is carried out in conformity with, for example, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). With an IP phone, an SIP server performs the role of the connection control server in a videoconferencing system.
One-to-one videoconferencing or IP phones involve registering a facial image to an address book.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-023414 discloses a connecting user interface in which a facial image is assigned to each camera and a camera image is displayed by dragging and dropping on an on-screen facial image icon to a display frame.
In addition, an example in which a facial image is applied to connection control is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-152206. By arranging a videoconferencing connection control server so as to consider a conference-participating terminal to be an object of connection control only when a facial image is detected in a video image, a facial image is always displayed on the conference-participating terminal.
Moreover, facial recognition techniques exist in which a degree of similarity between a verification facial image and a registered facial image is measured with respect to a geometric model representing the positional relationship of facial features corresponding to, for example, the eyes or the mouth.
Unlike an IP phone, in a videoconferencing system, a terminal is usually used by a plurality of users. In addition, a conference terminal is normally shared. However, connection control in conventional art is carried out based on the concept of connecting between conference terminals. As such, connection history is limited to terminal-based history.
Furthermore, while attempts have been made to call up history information by logging into a videoconferencing terminal, there may be cases where a reservation is not made in the first place. As a result, connection initiation at individual videoconferencing terminals require that cumbersome operations be performed involving either tracing back a fair amount of history or searching for network information on another party's conference terminal.